After two decades of walking laps, Queen’s Relay for Life shows no signs of slowing down.
Queen’s Relay for Life is celebrating twenty years of on-campus fundraising, during which it has raised more than $1.5 million for the Canadian Cancer Society. Keeping up with their mission, this year the team’s hoping to raise another $170,000 for the cause.
The main fundraising event, Relay for Life, is a twelve-hour walkathon taking place on March 20 from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. in the Queen’s Athletics & Recreation Centre. As participating students walk laps with their teams, they’ll also have the opportunity to enjoy activities and entertainment, sample food from sponsoring restaurants, and hear from cancer survivors.
The three co-chairs of Relay for Life, Kavi Gupta, HealthSci ’27, Juliet Krilanovich, and Matteo Salceda, both HealthSci ’26, spoke with The Journal about what else students can expect at the event.
“Relay for Life is essentially a party with a purpose,” Krilanovich said. “The event is an exciting end to a big year of fundraising and efforts that our team, as well as the entire Queen’s community, has accomplished.”
While the organization has already registered around 550 people, they’re hoping to reach over 800 participants.
“Everyone who comes to the event, we have an expectation that they raise a minimum of $100,” Krilanovich said. “Last year we had an average participant fundraising of $300, with some participants raising in the $10,000 plus range, and some in that $100 range.”
This year, the team has set a fundraising goal of $170,000, of which they’ve already raised over $65,000. They explained that this money hasn’t just come from teams of Queen’s students, but from faculty teams and members of the broader Kingston community as well.
“[Relay for Life] isn’t just a Queen’s event, but a Kingston event,” Gupta said. “We’re able to be a beacon for those who have experienced cancer to come share their experiences, not limited to just that small university section that we’re in. Then we have hundreds of sponsors that have generously donated to support Queen’s Relay for Life.”
In discussing what the event means to them, Krilanovich explained that her aunt was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer in 2022, and while she’s completely free of cancer today, she now lives with complications, including diabetes, loss of sight in one eye, and loss of feeling in her fingers.
“All these things came from the very toxic and scary treatments that she had to undergo, and surgeries as well,” Krilanovich said. “So, for me, the main purpose of why I do this is to continue pushing for new treatments and new things that can make the experiences of people who are diagnosed better.”
Gupta explained that his life was also affected by a cancer diagnosis in his family.
“My mom’s father, unfortunately, experienced cancer three times in his life,” Gupta said. “It was really difficult growing up living in Canada, being from an immigrant family, and seeing him all the way in India, dealing with his diagnosis. My mom had to go back and forth to support him, while she was raising my brother and I.”
Salceda similarly relays in honour of the two grandparents he lost to cancer.
“I relay so that others can have more time with their grandparents, friends, and loved ones, time that isn’t taken away by cancer,” Salceda said.
Tags
Canadian Cancer Society, Queen's Relay for Life, relay for life
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